Posts Tagged ‘technology’

The past week has been fruitful when it comes to digital marketing stats being revealed. The following eight in particular caught our eye: 1. What brands shouldn't do Almost 58 percent of social media users find the number of promotional posts by marketers to be annoying, according to Sprout Social, which surveyed more than 1,000 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users. Check out more numbers from its third-quarter study below. 2. American vs. British VR According to ClickZ Intelligence , 37 percent of U.S. consumers—in a poll of 1,000 people here and 1,000 folks in the United Kingdom—have tried out a virtual reality headset. That figure is almost double that of the U.K., where only 19 percent of people have tried one out. 3. Snappin' in the U.S.A. EMarketer yesterday predicted that Snapchat's American user base will jump nearly 14 percent next year to 66.6 million people. The New York-based researcher also reiterated that it expected Snapchat to near $1 billion ($935.5 million) in ad sales during 2017, generating 95 percent of such revenues in the U.S. 4

One week after details about Facebook inflating its video metrics for advertisers were discovered, the Association of National Advertisers has called for an audit and accreditation of the social platform's metrics. The ANA's qualms stem from a report in The Wall Street Journal last week finding that Facebook overestimated the amount of time users spend with videos by anywhere from 60 to 80 percent, according to a letter from Facebook to Publicis Media that the publication acquired. Facebook has since apologized, with multiple execs at Advertising Week discussing the mistake and a blog post from David Fischer, vp of advertising and global operations, explaining how the metric should have reflected the total amount of time spent watching a clip divided by total number of people who watched it. Instead, the faulty metric showed the total time divided by views of videos. In a blog post, ANA president and CEO Bob Liodice, wrote, "While ANA recognizes that 'mistakes do happen,' we also recognize that Facebook has not yet achieved the level of measurement transparency that marketers need and require." The trade organization's specific concern is that Facebook metrics are not vetted by the Media Rating Council—the industry watchdog that creates standards for advertisers to buy media against. Unlike other publishers and media companies, Facebook's so-called walled garden limits the amount of data that brands have into their campaigns, and the company has held back on giving third parties significant access into the platform, meaning that brands have to rely heavily on Facebook for insight into their campaigns. "With more than $6 billion of marketers' media being directed to Facebook, we believe that it is time for them—and other such major media players—to be audited and accredited. That is the standard of accepted practice that marketers and agencies have relied on for decades," Liodice wrote. "Internal viewability measurements employed by digital media owners should not be used for the purposes of conducting outside commerce." Liodice also cited an ANA report from last year that found that 97 percent of marketers think their ad inventory should be measured by a third party

To Scott Goodstein, the world of political advertising for a high-stakes campaign like the current presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump comes down to just three things: "Time, people and money," he said, referring to the audience they're trying to reach on a given day for a given price. Goodstein would know, after helping propel Barack Obama to the White House in 2008. And more recently, as CEO of Revolution Messaging, he spent the better part of the past two years deep in the digital trenches serving as digital agency of record for Bernie Sanders' spirited campaign. As the online battleground for the attention continues unabated in the final seven-week stretch before the presidential election and plenty of other key national and local races, marketers from both sides of the aisle see digital efforts—particularly those in the mobile realm—as integral to reaching the right voters. "If I'm trying to reach young people in California where they have a higher propensity to cut the cord, why am I buying cable TV [ads] for young people channels?" he said. According to a new report by AOL, 53 percent of political advertisers say they've increased digital and mobile spending from 2012 to 2016, with about half of all such expenditures being bought programmatically. And with audience behavior now front and center in the most data-minded White House race to date, smart targeting is more valuable than ever. In some cases, targeted buys could substantially help a candidate. A survey conducted by TubeMogul found that 35 percent of more than 1,000 voters said seeing an online ad for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, made them more likely to vote for her. On the other hand, just 31 percent said the same for Republican Trump

Branded content bests other online advertising in multiple ways, per a new joint study from IPG MediaLab, Forbes and Syracuse University's Newhouse School. Here are a few quick hits from their research: Brand recall is 59 percent higher for branded content than display and native ads. Consumers are 14 percent more likely to look for additional content from a company after a single impression of branded content. Branded content is getting better, showing a 17 percent improvement in brand recall compared to a similar study in 2013 by the same trio of players. Forbes chief revenue officer Mark Howard wasn't about to diss traditional display ads, though, stating that his publication's clients see a 9 percent lift when display is combined with branded content. "As the study shows, branded content educates audiences on topics in which brands have a domain expertise, allowing our brands to truly connect in a consumer centric way," he added. Check out the rest of the study here.

Having wowed advertisers at the Cannes Lions in June with the unveiling of its long-awaited ad tech platform, Snapchat has shown no signs of slowing down. The popular messaging app plans to attract deep-pocketed marketers and investors with the introduction of in-app behavioral targeting in the fourth quarter timed to a rumored IPO. To improve ad targeting, the popular messaging app last week announced Snap Audience Match, which lets brands take their email lists and files of mobile device IDs, and then anonymously sync the data with Snapchat's user pool. The company also will let a brand target viewers based on what content categories they follow. A Fortune 500 marketer, who requested anonymity, said talks are underway with Snapchat to launch pilot programs around the ad-targeting initiative.

There's that old saying about how it takes walking a mile in someone else's shoes to know them. But for Google, all it takes is a week of tracking a person's digital and physical footsteps. In one of its most comprehensive studies yet for how people benefit from mobile devices, Google asked 1,000 users to take a survey several times a day for a week to help the company better understand their needs throughout the day and how a smartphone helped them. The results, released today, provided more than 14,000 responses that helped illustrate when people want to know something, buy something, watch something or do something. The results are good news for Google, which now receives more than half of its search traffic from mobile devices. It also now gives the company more evidence for pitching mobile-first advertising campaigns for both marketers to drive online sales, mobile application installs and offline visits. According to Google, 92 percent of respondents who did research on their phone made a purchase within a day, and 76 percent of those searching for something nearby visited a related business within a day. (Back in May, Google said mobile shopping searches had gone up 30 percent in the past year.) "What we found in this diary setting is what we've been seeing over the last few years," said Lisa Gevelber, Google's vp of marketing. "This shift to mobile is not just a shift in biases—it's a dramatic shift in consumer behavior and in expectations." According to Google, smartphones were the most popular type of device for addressing daily needs. In fact, 96 percent said they used their phone, while just 33 percent used a tablet and 73 percent used a laptop. (Exactly half said they used more than one device.) Most people said they used their phone the most because it was the closest device or easiest device at any given time.

The NFL regular season starts this week, and Sports Illustrated wants to load up your podcast apps with football commentary all fall. SI is launching three new weekly podcasts with DGital Media today, audio extensions of its Monday Morning Quarterback (MMQB) website that covers football. MMQB editor Peter King will host one of the shows— The MMQB Podcast with Peter King —featuring interviews with the likes of John Elway, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett and Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians. In addition to King's show, there are two other football-themed podcasts: one with MMQB.com reporter Albert Breer and another one called The Ten Things MMQB Podcast. Sports Illustrated is backing up its investment in audio with stats. Streams for its existing shows, including the SI Media podcast hosted by Richard Deitsch and the basketball-themed SI's Open Floor, have increased 200 percent in the past year with downloads up 150 percent. "As time goes along, we'll introduce some non-MMQB podcasts, but with football starting this week, this represents the best opportunity to fill the richest conversation from the start," said Chris Stone, group editorial director at Sports Illustrated. "Even anecdotally, we sense that [this] is beyond the football space." He added, "We saw this summer in particular basketball around the NBA finals—we saw massive spikes in people who were engaging and downloading our podcast." At launch, King's show will be sponsored by Blue Apron, FanDuel, SeatGeek and Harry's with preroll and midroll ads. Unlike other podcasts that prerecord ads with a separate voice, all of Sports Illustrated's ads will be read by the hosts. "It allows a premium influencer like a Peter King to talk through what that sponsorship is, whether it's a 60-second or 30-second midroll or preroll spot," said Chris Corcoran, chief content officer at DGital Media.

While continuous advances in social media and mobile technology have warmly embraced the sharing of photos, articles and videos, audio has been left in the cold—despite the recent resurgence of podcasts. The absence of truly direct ways to share audio files, whether they be songs or podcasts, via Facebook and Twitter has left musicians and podcasters scrambling for workarounds in order to avoid the dilemma faced by application developers—fighting for attention in increasingly crowded app stores (mainly iTunes) and hoping for discoverability via search engines. For the most part, podcasters must resort to sharing links to their content, which does not endear them to social network users, who are often reluctant to click through and leave their networks for other environments, nor to the social networks themselves, as they tend to prioritize "native" content, or content uploaded directly to their networks. Workarounds do exist. Twitter's integration of audio cards from SoundCloud presented podcasters with the opportunity to post their content directly to that social network, but there are pitfalls there, too.

Flipboard is turning a new page and will begin selling programmatic display and native ads. The mobile app known for offering users a sampling of stories from around the web will offer ads through a private marketplace enabled by Rubicon Project beginning next month. Brands will also be able to utilize Flipboard's targeting capabilities that allows it to reach users based on their reading interests and demographics. According to Nicole McCormack, Flipboard's head of sales strategy, the move will expand capabilities beyond direct sales to allow the more than 10,000 advertisers who have access to the marketplace to reach the app's 90 million monthly users. Top advertisers already on Flipboard include Intel, Toyota, Lexus and Bank of America. "One of the things we bring to the programmatic space in a mobile environment is a really high quality audience and a premium one," McCormack said. Through Rubicon Project's exchange API, advertisers will be able to utilize the exchange that was built specifically for mobile.

YouTube and TV—two competing mediums fighting for the same eyeballs and advertising dollars—might actually be able to find common ground. A Nielsen case study commissioned by Google found that TV reach seems to drive YouTube engagement, and in turn, YouTube engagement drives TV reach. In other words, according to the report, people who view a TV program's content on YouTube are more likely to tune in to the actual show. Because of that, as TV audience increases, so does YouTube viewership. According to Nielsen, digital advertising in the U.S. has been rising 15 percent every year since 2012 with no signs of slowing down. (In fact, according to eMarketer , digital ad spending will surpass TV as soon as next year.) But the seemingly symbiotic relationship could be a sign for advertisers that both mediums might be better than just one. "The notion that YouTube can bring new people into a show while also keeping current fans connected presents a big opportunity for both programmers, as well as advertisers, who seek to capture audiences whenever and wherever they watch premium content," said Jonathan Zepp, Google's head of North American partnerships for YouTube. To conduct the study, Nielsen evaluated 30 TV shows—including genres such as comedy, competition, drama and talk shows—while analyzing historical data from YouTube and TV currency data from Nielsen's own sources. Researchers then looked to see how the two formats moved in relationship with each other apart from promotions, seasonality, brand effect and show engagement. Researchers also studied habits of those who watched TV content on YouTube and compared it to those who didn't. The results were "significant," according to the case study of Nielsen's findings.

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Talk NYC/WW is your daily download of the tech, marketing and advertising news you need to know. It’s smartly curated to keep you up to speed on the innovators and innovations that are shaking up the digital world today.